NICHOLAS Kaufman, lawyer of Rodrigo Duterte, the former president who now faces crimes against humanity charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC), has claimed his client is unfit to face the Sept. 23 confirmation of charges public hearing. His reason: Gongdi suffers from “cognitive impairment.”
Kaufman got a postponement of the Sept. 23 confirmation of charges hearing, as two of the three judges in an ICC Pretrial Court voted for a postponement. The new date of confirmation hearing is still unclear. Netizens mocked Kaufman because he is a lawyer and not a medical doctor, whose expertise is on mental illness.
Kaufman did not disclose his basis for his claim. He did not say if what he claimed as Gongdi’s cognitive impairment was the diagnosis of any of the psychiatrists employed by the ICC prison facility at Scheveningen, The Netherlands. Neither did he say that what he expressed was his mere personal opinion.
Kaufman bared his legal strategy on the basis of this claim. Aside from the postponement, he was also asking the ICC Pretrial Court for Gongdi’s “interim liberty” and his immediate return to the Philippines because of his cognitive issues. Gongdi’s lawyer failed in his several attempts for his temporary release from the ICC jail and his claim of cognitive impairment appeared to be his last-ditch attempt to convince the ICC Pretrial Court.
It is an irony that Gongdi and his band of supporters hardly know the flow of history. Had they read history they will learn that European courts were unkind to the persons, who were previously involved in crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes of aggression, and genocide. These are not regarded as ordinary crimes like murder, homicide, or robbery.
Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler’s private secretary, who rose to become his deputy in command of the Nazi Party in Hitler’s rapid ascent to political power in 1933-1941, flew solo to Scotland in 1941 in what appeared to be a strange moment of insanity ostensibly to negotiate for an “end” of the Second World War. Then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not take him seriously and ordered his imprisonment.
At the end of the war, Hess was among the top Nazi leaders, who faced the 1945 Nuremberg Trials, where top Nazi leaders faced trial for committing crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes of aggression, and genocide. Hess feigned cognitive impairment during the Nuremberg Trials public hearing. He was said to have amnesia.
The Nuremberg Court composed of magistrates from the U.S. Great Britain, France, and SovietUnion was unconvinced of Hess’s cognitive issues. It sentenced him to lifetime imprisonment. Hess committed suicide in 1987 at Germany’s Spandau prison, where he was held since 1945. He was 93.
The Tokyo Trials, which was patterned after the Nuremberg Trials, declared ideologue Shumei Okawa as unfit to stand trial because of mental illness, diagnosed as schizophrenia. He behaved erratically during the public hearing of the Tokyo Trials and at one hearing, he slapped the head of wartime Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo. He was also unruly and shouted slogans during a single trial, after which he was declared unfit to trial.
For sure, Gongdi’s camp would not ask for his “interim liberty.” History shows European courts from which international tribunals like the International Criminal Court (ICC), or the defunct International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, have based their governing rules, were most unkind to people accused of those international crimes.
In most cases, they did not give interim liberty to the accused of international crimes except in one instance when the ICC gave temporary release to a Kenyan strongman, who, when released temporarily, neutralized his political opponents to obtain a dismissal of the complaint against him because witnesses were nowhere to be found later.
Erich Priebke, a mid-level Nazi official during the Nazi Germany occupation of Italy in 1943-1944. He was a Schutstaffel (SS) commander, who was among those responsible for the Fosse Ardeatine Massacre in 1944, where 335 Italian civilians were killed in retaliation to the Italian Resistance’s murder of 33 Germans, who were members of the SS Police Regiment.
After the war, Priebke fled to Argentina using the ratlines reputedly established by Catholic bishops, who were sympathetic to the Nazis. Priebke, a Catholic, lived there for 50 years, but was exposed by a team of broadcast journalists of the ABC network. The team was led by Sam Donaldson, a towering figure in U.S, broadcast journalism.
In the interview, Priebke said he became an SS member in 1936, worked in the Waffen-SS, a paramilitary group supporting dictator Adolf Hitler, and later joined the Gestapo, Hitler’s secret police. He was assigned in 1941 in Italy as an interpreter because of his proficiency in the Italian language. His Nazi superiors noticed him there and they made him an important link of Nazi Germany to the Vatican.
Priebke participated in the Fosse Ardeatine Massacre after Hitler ordered the murder of at least 10 Italians for every German police officer, who was killed by Italian Resistance fighters. The reprisal was swift because Hitler wanted them dead within 24 hours. At least 335 Italians were rounded out and brought to the caves of Ardeatine and murdered. Priebke was documented as among the Gestapo officers involved in the massacre.
In the ABC coverage, Priebke confessed his role in the grisly massacre, making the ABC report a global sensation. He showed almost no remorse for his evil deeds.This prompted the Italian government to know Priebke’s whereabouts and it requested the Argentinian government to extradite the Nazi war criminal. It was granted.
In 1995, an Italian court held a trial for his crimes. He claimed that he acted on the basis of Hitler’s order, but his excuse was not accepted. He was imprisoned in 1997 and after court battles, he died in prison in 2013 until he reached 100. Controversy also hounded his remains. He was buried in the cemetery of a former prison in Italy.
It is inconceivable how Gongdi could get interim release from the ICC, when history shows an unfavorable attitude to mass murderers like him. Kaufman faces a gargantuan task, as history is not on his side. Gongdi may have to stay in the ICC prison facility until his death.
